Yes, pessimism requires scientific justification these days as cognoscenti needn't be knee-jerk Malthusians to gain entre to the best parties. Of course if you're not knee-jerk... Malthus was a pretty cool guy right?
Regarding power generation, there're also those slow turning high torque thingys buried under rivers i.e. you have no unsightly or obstructive dams to contend with. The spin is slow enough to not kill the fish.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Keep in mind that some of the best most fuel efficient cars, e.g. a 65 mpg diesel Mini Cooper, are simply unavailable in the USA because the so-called "capitalists" in this country are for the most part wimps who can't stomach real competition and puppet Congress to protect them from those with an unfair advantage, such as better engineers.
